Boris Grigorievs charming "Still Life with Cat and Onions", circa 1928, a work that has been extensively published and exhibited (est. $300/400,000). Photo: Sotheby's.

By: Christopher Michaud

NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- With hopes for recovery in fine art prices running high, attention is trained on second-tier markets such as Russian collecting for signs of renewal.

Sotheby's conducts the season's first Russian art sales next week, led by a pair of important collections including one of 86 works by Ukrainian avant-garde artists being sold as a single lot.

The auctions come on the heels of strong Asia Week sales at both Sotheby's and rival Christie's in New York, and last month's Hong Kong results, where salesrooms were filled to capacity, estimates were exceeded and records fell.

"This market has been booming for quite some time" and is seeing a renewed confidence, said Sonya Bekkerman, Sotheby's director of Russian paintings.

The financial crisis that struck in 2008 made collectors "more selective, but they're buying consistently," she added.

The relatively recent phenomenon of Russian collecting has drawn widespread attention, as oligarchs emboldened with seemingly limitless cash snapped up top works at auction at often astounding prices.

Bidders gasped in 2006 as an anonymous bidder paid more than $95 million for Picasso's "Dora Maar with Cat."

The mystery man, unknown to even auction regulars, had not even secured a seat at Sotheby's and conducted his audacious bidding from the standing area at the rear. Reports, unconfirmed by Sotheby's, have since focused on a Russian mining magnate as the buyer.

Philip Hoffman, founder and CEO of The Fine Art Fund Group investment house, said that while the Russian market is somewhat unpredictable, "collectors have become more savvy and are doing more research."

"The wealthy people coming into the market have the confidence now to do it, and they have the money," he said.

Bekkerman concurred that "there is a level of sophistication that's very different from when this market began to boom. They've caught up."

Accordingly, Sotheby's has estimated its two star collections conservatively, with the single-lot Yakov Pereman collection estimated at only $1.5 million to $2 million for all 86 works. The late actress Ruth Ford's collection of art by Pavel Tchelitchew, who was her brother's companion, is expected to fetch about $2 million.

Other works by Russian masters including Boris Grigoriev and Natalia Goncharova raise the sales' total expectations to $11 million to $15 million. An exhibition, including many pieces never seen in the U.S., begins on Saturday ahead of next week's auctions.

Bekkerman, who just returned from Moscow and Kiev, said the offerings had generated great interest in Russia, the Ukraine, and in the U.S. and among Americans of Russian descent.

Taken with the Asian sales results, the Russian auctions could generate heat going into next month's critical sales in New York.

"This market is a gateway," Bekkerman said. "The collectors have an interest in their own heritage and artists, then channel into other areas such as modernism and post-impressionism."